Buying water

"Lord Fox Immortal, have mercy!"

"Lord Fox Immortal, please take pity on us!"

"Lord Fox Immortal, if we don't get water soon, all the crops will wither and die!"

Early that morning, heartfelt pleas echoed outside the Fox Immortal Temple for a long time.

Sun Qin approached from outside, a fly whisk in hand and dressed in red-and-white shrine maiden robes. From a distance, she saw over a hundred villagers kneeling, nearly filling the road in front of the temple.

"What are you doing here?!"

At the sound of Sun Qin's voice, everyone instinctively turned their heads.

In an instant, pair after pair of yearning eyes fixed on her.

Faced with their stares, however, Sun Qin showed no fear. Instead, she frowned, swept her fly whisk through the air, and shouted, "What are you doing?! Disturbing Lord Yi Yun's peace like this-aren't you afraid he'll hold you accountable?!"

"We don't want to disturb Lord Fox Immortal either." At that moment, Song Ran, representing the villagers, rose and stepped out of the crowd. With a somewhat helpless, bitter smile, he said, "Immortal maiden, if Lord Fox Immortal doesn't give us water soon, we'll die of thirst, let alone the crops in the fields!"

That was what he said, but people weren't so easily killed by thirst. The main problem was still the crops.

It was now the fifth day since Yin Yunze had given his order.

With that group of village women as a warning, the grain rationing on the second day had gone off without any trouble.

What those foolish women had done had spread throughout the village that very night.

It had also made everyone realize that Yin Yunze wasn't so mild-tempered after all.

For now, he had only withdrawn his gifts. If they truly angered him and he brought disaster down upon them, it would be too late for regrets.

As a result, apart from some people choosing not to exchange for grain, things had gone fairly smoothly overall.

And when Yin Yunze saw the additional hundred-odd taels of gold, he finally understood why so many people liked exploiting others.

Because exploiting others really did bring in money fast.

For a moment, Yin Yunze even wanted to force people to buy and sell.

But to maintain his image, Yin Yunze held himself back.

Two days after they had exchanged for relief grain, the villagers, whose attention had been diverted by the high price of grain, belatedly realized something.

Yin Yunze had truly stopped supplying water, just as he had said.

No matter how the village's old farmers pleaded, the streams of water that appeared out of thin air never came again.

Only then did the villagers truly panic.

Compared with running out of grain, the lack of water was the greater problem.

Drinking water wasn't so bad. As long as they didn't bathe, the water in their large jars would last them a few more days.

But after three days without irrigation, the fields had begun to dry out again.

What farmer could sit still and watch crops that had begun to grow die of drought?

And so this scene had come to pass: the villagers had gathered and dragged Song Ran along to beg Yin Yunze for water.

As for why they had brought Song Ran, one reason was naturally that he was now the village chief of Clear Creek Village.

The other was that Sun Qin hadn't been kind enough to cover for him.

Everyone already knew that it was Song Ran's bringing the authorities here that had led Yin Yunze to decide to cut off their water and grain.

Someone had to take the blame, so why couldn't it be Song Zhao and Song Ran, father and son?!

Sun Qin had already shown excellent character by not taking the opportunity to push them down the well.

"I could let it pass if anyone else said that, but Song Ran, how can you have the nerve?" Seeing Song Ran step forward, Sun Qin sneered and brought up the past. "If it weren't for those people you brought here, why would Lord Yi Yun have been punished? If you hadn't brought them, how would the water and grain have become impossible to supply..."

Cold sweat broke out on Song Ran as he listened to Sun Qin.

The bone-chilling looks from the villagers made him even more uneasy.

"Let's not bring up the past! Nobody wanted this to happen... Besides, if you'd been in my place, which of you could have refused the people from the county yamen? Yes, that's right! The circumstances were stronger than any of us. How can you blame it all on me?!"

At first, Song Ran had only wanted to explain himself, but as he spoke, he seemed finally to find the words to defend himself. He turned to the villagers and said, "If you've got the guts, then come with me! We'll go to the county yamen right now and seek justice for Lord Fox Immortal! Which of you dares? You! You! Or you?!"

As he spoke, Song Ran pointed at several of the people who had kicked up the biggest fuss before.

Faced with Song Ran's counterattack, the people he pointed at couldn't help lowering their heads.

They had the courage to join in denouncing Song Ran, but they didn't dare go to the yamen and make trouble.

Song Ran didn't press the point, though. After all, to tell the truth, he didn't dare go to the county yamen and make trouble either. If he ran into someone reckless who put him on the spot again, he'd really be trapped between two fires.

So, after turning the situation around somewhat, Song Ran returned to the matter at hand. "What's done is done. The most important thing now is to beg the Fox Immortal to show mercy! Immortal Maiden Sun, please plead with Lord Fox Immortal on everyone's behalf!"

Sun Qin, who had been watching the show, saw Song Ran and the others all looking at her. She gave her fly whisk an affected sweep, then laid it over her left arm and put on a look of compassion. "Water is the foundation of a farming household. I know that too. These past few days, how could I not have begged Lord Yi Yun?!"

"Then what did Lord Fox Immortal say?" Song Ran asked, tactfully picking up the cue.

"Lord Yi Yun said that all the water sources under heaven fall under the Dragon Lord's authority. The water he supplied in the past was obtained by shamelessly begging Lord Dragon Lord for it. Before, the Dragon Lord could turn a blind eye. But now that the matter has been exposed, he has offended the Dragon Lord, and there is no longer any chance of borrowing water from him!"

Sun Qin delivered the explanation just as Yin Yunze had instructed.

"How... how could this happen..."

"Is there really no hope for us..."

"Lord Fox Immortal has vast Divine Abilities. Surely there's a way?!"

"If we can't borrow water, what about buying it?"

Suddenly, a somewhat incongruous voice came from the crowd.

But amid the confusion, no one noticed who had first called it out.

Most of the villagers, however, seemed to wake from a dream and began calling out one after another.

"Right, we'll buy water!"

"Can we buy water?"

Most of the villagers had already bought water before, so they weren't too opposed to the idea.

Seeing that they had finally reached the crucial point in the performance, Sun Qin put on an act of considering it before saying with difficulty, "I can't make that decision. I need to ask Lord Yi Yun! All of you, be quiet and wait while I ask him for you."

With that, Sun Qin closed her eyes and prayed loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Lord Yi Yun, the villagers of Clear Creek Village wish to buy water from the Dragon Lord. May I ask if this is possible?"

"Yes!"

As a voice sounded beside everyone's ears, a nine-tailed white fox as tall as a man appeared on the roof of the Fox Immortal Temple.

At such a crucial moment, it was clearly difficult for Sun Qin to convince everyone on her own.

After all, they were about to take money out of these people's pockets!

The nine-tailed white fox stood on the temple roof, looking down at the crowd, and spoke in a human voice. "The Dragon Lord loves treasure above all else. If each of your households contributes two taels of gold, I can try to ask the Dragon Lord to send a rainstorm down upon you!"

"He can ask for rain?"

"But two taels of gold..."

"And from every household..."

"Isn't that..."

Everyone was naturally happy to hear Yin Yunze himself confirm that he could ask for rain.

But at two taels of gold per household, everyone felt the pain of parting with the money.

Looking at their conflicted expressions, Yin Yunze couldn't help curling his lip.

Others might not know, but how could Yin Yunze, the source of the grain they sold, not know?

After more than half a month of trading grain, every household had at least six or seven taels of gold in savings. Even if they had spent a little buying grain a few days ago, each household definitely still had four or five taels of gold saved.

Now, Yin Yunze was only asking them to put up half of it.

Although he was asking for a lion's share, Yin Yunze only wanted to recoup some of his costs in the end.

After all, it was foreseeable that Yin Yunze would have no opportunity to earn any income for a long time to come.

Besides, someone else might take their money and still not get the job done.

Seeing that they didn't even want to part with two taels of gold, Yin Yunze refused to indulge them.

"If you are unwilling, then consider that I never mentioned it! Do you think that just because you have gold, I won't have to put my reputation on the line?"

The nine-tailed white fox on the roof gave a strikingly human sneer. "In the end, it is you mortals who cannot live without water. What does that have to do with me? If this falls through today, do not come begging me in the future! Go and find your own way to survive!"